I read a great comment written by a guy from Melbourne who said:
“For those above who question the fawning (about Steve Jobs death), please consider the following. And to put some perspective, I have deep roots in the IT industry over 20 years, do not like Apple as a company, their products nor their marketing and manufacturing policies.
However, I am saddened by the death of Steve Jobs. Not because of the products or company he created, but because of what he helped lead the IT industry to accomplish.
Jobs and Wozniak put affordable computers on people’s desks (Apple II & Macintosh).
Jobs and Gates brought accessible operating systems to the masses (Windows and MacOS).
Jobs and Xerox came up with small desktop printers (LaserWriter).
Jobs company NeXT provided the computers so that Berners-Lee could invent the world wide web (Internet as we now know it).
Jobs pioneered plug ‘n play so that peripherals “just work”.
Jobs brought the music and communications industries into the 21st century through devices and software for the masses which made things easy for you (iTunes and iOS).
So next time you wonder why Jobs is hailed as an IT genius and an IT God, take a good look at your desktop computer, laptop, handheld device, tablet, music library, mobile phone, the internet and remember……. without Jobs, none of that would’ve happened.”
Well, all gals need to frock up and change their look from time to time.
How else does any self-respecting chick ward off the boredom of the same old thing?
Of course, I’m no exception, and there has been a momentous decision made regarding the future of this blog (drumroll please).
Over the next few days, we’re moving to a brand new, hot theme for this wordpress blog.
Hoorah! A brand new look!
Now, try as I might to get all the housekeeping done before we move across (yep, I’m been spring cleaning this blog for the last few days and I’m worn out from it), I’m going to apologise upfront if you find the space is a bit of a mess while we’re on the move.
Hopefully you’ll enjoy the new look once any or all the kinks are ironed out.
As companies begin to refocus on growth, innovation has once again become a priority.
In its most recent McKinsey Global Survey, 84 percent of executives say innovation is extremely or very important to their companies’ growth strategy.
The survey shows that the approach companies use to generate good ideas and turn them into products and services has changed little since before the financial crisis, and many of the challenges—finding the right talent, encouraging collaboration and risk taking, organizing the innovation process from beginning to end—are remarkably consistent.
Indeed, surveys over the past few years suggest that the core barriers to successful innovation haven’t changed, and companies have made little progress in surmounting them. Continue Reading
The firm says that it’s taken the App Store just 2.2 years to shift the same number of items as the iTunes store managed in five. It reckons that by the end of 2010, total downloads for each are likely to hit around 13 billion.
This is despite the fact that the total number of apps available is far smaller at around a quarter of a million. This is way below the 12 million songs available on iTunes – although one mustn’t forget that many, unlinke songs, are free.
“If the current download rate is maintained (17 million apps/day) and if the pricing of $0.29 per app is preserved, then $1.8 billion will have been spent on iOS apps this year,” says Asymco. Continue Reading
Here is some good news for lovers of their iPhones and iPads.
Apple has lifted its develop restrictions to enable apps to be created using Adobe Flash.
In a surprise turnaround from the war raging earlier this year, Apple has released new developer agreements and old restrictions have been lifted.
The new contractual language not only appears to allow developers to use pretty much any programming tool, including Adobe Flash Packager for iPhone, but it also appears to allow the use of third-party advertising and analytics services, such as Google’s AdMob.
Adobe likes what it sees in the new contractual terms.
“We are encouraged to see Apple lifting its restrictions on its licensing terms, giving developers the freedom to choose what tools they use to develop applications for Apple devices,” a company spokesperson said in an e-mailed statement.
Google has rekindle its love for speedy Web searches with Google Instant, a new version of the search engine that displays results as you type.
When typing a search query with Google Instant, results appear after the first letter is entered, and they update as the user types. Marissa Mayer, Google’s vice president of search and user experience, said results are actually delivered “before you type,” because Google Instant predicts and automatically completes search terms.
According to Google, a typical searcher spends nine seconds entering a query, and 15 seconds searching for answers. Google hopes to shave two to five seconds per search using Google Instant as each keystroke triggers a predictive search which eventually will display the target of your ferreting. Watch this video to learn the basics.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled the new Facebook Places location-based check-in service at a press event this week.
Following in the footsteps of services like Foursquare and Gowalla, the Facebook Places service provides businesses with a platform for marketing and promotion, and provides an opportunity to build customer loyalty.
It hasn’t been launched without some criticism though, with some quarters highlighting privacy concerns.
Unlike Foursquare, the Facebook users don’t have to sign up for the check-in feature but by default could find their friends are posting their location.
When asked at the Facebook Places launch whether or not the new service would be integrated with business pages on Facebook, Reuters reported that Zuckerberg and company dodged the question. Continue Reading
Google has announced on its blog that Google Wave, a web app that allows realtime communication and collaboration, is no more.
According to Google, the problem is that not enough people were using it. The demand wasn’t there to justify continuing to pursue it. Good on them, though, for testing the boundaries of what the market might want in future technologies.
Here is what Urs Hölzle, Senior Vice President, Operations & Google Fellow had to say:
“We don’t plan to continue developing Wave as a standalone product, but we will maintain the site at least through the end of the year and extend the technology for use in other Google projects. The central parts of the code, as well as the protocols that have driven many of Wave’s innovations, like drag-and-drop and character-by-character live typing, are already available as open source, so customers and partners can continue the innovation we began. In addition, we will work on tools so that users can easily “liberate” their content from Wave.”
You can check out Google Wave (or at least what’s left) by going here.
In the world’s worst kept secret, Steve Jobs is tipped to unveil the Apple Tablet Next Month, an ex-Google Exec says.
Rumoured to be called the iSlate, it will come with 3D graphics and a price tag below US$1000, according to former Google China president Kai-Fu Lee (who has now lost his tongue on the topic of Apple since being bombarded with journalists and their questions).
The comments from Lee, originally published on his Chinese blog and who worked for Apple over a decade ago and left Google this year, add to the circulating rumours of a possible ultrathin Apple tablet combining e-reader and Web-surfing functions.
Speculation about the device has redoubled since a blog post by the Financial Times last week cited unnamed sources saying Apple is expected to make a major product announcement at an event in San Francisco on Jan. 26.
According to Lee, the new device will weigh less than half as much as a MacBook Air and he also cited speculation that Apple could team up with U.S. network operators to lower the price of the tablet.
Operators already widely use a similar model for mobile phones including the iPhone, in which the buyer gets a discounted device in exchange for signing a mobile service contract.
